Justin Tucker, LHBC Worship Pastor
Psalm 145
1 I exalt You, my God the King, and praise Your name forever and ever. 2 I will praise You every day; I will honor Your name forever and ever. 3 Yahweh is great and is highly praised; His greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation will declare Your works to the next and will proclaim Your mighty acts. 5 I will speak of Your glorious splendor and Your wonderful works.
6 They will proclaim the power of Your awe-inspiring works, and I will declare Your greatness.
7 They will give a testimony of Your great goodness and will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. 8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love. 9 The Lord is good to everyone; His compassion rests on all He has made. 10 All You have made will praise You, Lord; the godly will bless You. 11 They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom and will declare Your might, 12 informing all people of Your mighty acts and of the glorious splendor of Your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; Your rule is for all generations. The Lord is faithful in all His words and gracious in all His actions. 14 The Lord helps all who fall; He raises up all who are oppressed. 15 All eyes look to You, and You give them their food in due time. 16 You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways and gracious in all His acts. 18 The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity. 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry for help and saves them. 20 The Lord guards all those who love Him, but He destroys all the wicked. 21 My mouth will declare the Lord’s praise; let every living thing praise His holy name forever and ever.
I praise Your name
In every moment I will choose to sing
With all I am, with every breath I take
I praise Your name
Praise is defined as an expression of approval or admiration. We praise God, but we also praise our spouses, our kids, the people that we work with and I’ve even been known to praise our dog. God isn’t looking for our approval of the incredible things He does every day but He does deserve our admiration for all He does. He is literally the most admirable being in the entire universe, that He spoke into existence by the way, so we praise Him for who He is and what He has done.
So often we think that praise and worship are exclusive of one another when in reality praise is birthed out of our worship. Worship begins with the motivation of loving and honoring God and praise is the expression of that motivation. Think about it this way, if I only tell my wife and kids that I love them but if I never express my love to them through my actions…how do they know that my love and admiration for them is real? We do that very thing to God in corporate worship gatherings because of either bad theology or denominational culture. When we come in with our arms crossed, our mouths shut, and our laundry list of expectations we aren’t expressing an admiration or love towards God, we aren’t “declaring the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1Peter 2:9).
Praise isn’t a feeling, it’s an expression. First, our praises must be expressed to God so that He receives the honor and glory He deserves and has earned. Psalm 22:3 says that the Lord is “holy and enthroned on the praises of His people”. Our praise builds a seat of honor for our King to come and rest His glory on. We have a big God, we had better be preparing a big throne. Second, we express our praises so that the world may witness it. Psalm 40:3 says, “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord”. You may be feeling admiration in your heart but how are you expressing it to God and the world? How are you declaring it? Lastly, we express our praise because it is how we do battle with the enemy. In Joshua 6…Jericho fell. In 2 Chronicles 20…the army of Judah was victorious. In Acts 16…Paul and Silas were set free. All of these examples are products of God’s people being obedient and praising Him. God does big things when we are obedient and give Him praise.
Sometimes the obedience of praise is difficult. Some days are just hard. I read a Chris Tomlin quote one time that said, “Praising when you don’t feel like it isn’t faking it, it’s faithing it.” This week I needed that reminder of that. Let’s commit together this week to give God the praise He deserves whether it’s easy or not because He is worthy!
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Heavenly Father, help me to walk in faith and obedience and give you the praise that you deserve. Deepen my faith on the days that are difficult and I don’t feel like praising you. Grow me and stretch me to give you praise simply because you are worthy. Grow me in my expression of praise so that others may see it and come to know you. I love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.